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Welcome back to Down Home! And a very special welcome to any new SLOCA families who are joining us here on the blog for the first time. We are excited you are with us, look forward to getting to know you, and want you to feel encouraged and supported at home by what we share here. Our summer blogging series will offer ideas, tips, and reminders focusing on three themes: Prepare (for next school year), Play (with your family), and Pause (intentionally take breaks to rest and recharge as a parent).
We’ve now had a couple of weeks to take a deep breath, settle into summer and veg out a bit (hopefully), so our first Prepare tip for the summer (after you feel you’ve all had a decent break) is to keep learning. Not necessarily in a Summer School way – you know best what you and your kids need. But there are fun, creative, yet practical ways to keep working on skills so the kids don’t experience “brain drain.” And summertime provides ample opportunities to encourage a sense of wonder and deepen the love of learning through interest-driven play and exploration. Here are just a few suggestions, all totally optional of course!
- Keep practicing those math facts! Why not try a new app, if you have a smart phone or tablet you’re willing to let the kids use. Here’s one reviewer’s list of the Best Math Apps for Children.
- For students going into Lower or Upper Middle School, how about trying a typing program over the summer to help get a jump start on, or refresh, typing skills? One parent wrote in that this was a great help to her kids last summer.
- Get outside and interact with nature. Free play in the backyard, nature hikes, looking for insects, and even eating outdoors are a few of the many ways to explore the world around us. If you want to ramp it up a bit from there, check out this list of 10 Awesome Outdoor Summer Learning Ideas.
- Read! Okay, this is an obvious one, but it should be mentioned, right? There are tons of book lists to choose from, including our own Novel Adventures reading lists (found here on our password-protected parent page). The yellow Summer Reading handout has some great suggestions as well. In fact, we hope you’ll read 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson and join us for the Family Reading Group in August!
- Here's a cute idea from last year’s blog: encourage curiosity with an “I Wonder Why” board. Let your children ask questions and then set out together to find the answers. The slower pace of summer allows kids time to follow their interests and investigate all those burning questions.
Now we have a question – how do you like to keep the kids engaged over summer? Leave a comment and share your ideas and discoveries for fun summer learning!
